Two Proteas’ players ranked first in overall ICC Player Rankings

The Proteas and Cricket South Africa (CSA) can proudly boast of two player representatives recently claiming first places on the overall ICC Player Rankings for their respective on-field duties.

Proteas pacer, Dale Steyn, recently claimed first rank in the ICC Test Bowler Rankings after the sublime form he showed in their most recent encounter with New Zealand, which South Africa won by 204 runs. Due to ongoing form, Proteas stalwart, AB de Villiers also stakes claim at being ranked number one in the ICC ODI Batsmen Rankings.

In addition to these highest recognized achievements, South Africa evidently boasts player representatives in all of the formats of the game- both batsmen and bowlers, in the respective ICC top 10 Player Rankings for the various codes.

The Proteas lend two representatives in the top 10 ICC Test Batting Rankings (Hashim Amla at 4th and AB de Villiers at 6th) and the solitude 1st-ranked Dale Steyn in the top 10 ICC Test Bowler Rankings.

The green and gold of South Africa astonishingly shaded four ranking placements in the top 10 ICC ODI Batting Rankings with AB de Villiers (ranked 1st), Hashim Amla (ranked 3rd), Quinton de Kock (ranked 9th) and Faf du Plessis (ranked 10th). The same number of Proteas bowlers is seen to be represented in the top 10 ICC Bowler Rankings, namely: Imran Tahir (5th), Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada (tied on 7th), Morne Morkel (9th).

In the described ‘hit-and-run’ Twenty20 format of the game, South Africa is represented by a single player in the top 10 ICC T20 Batting Rankings with Faf du Plessis ranked in at 4th place. Nearing South Africa’s third first-placed player ranking, Imran Tahir ranks 2nd in the top 10 ICC T20 Bowler Rankings, with Kyle Abbott ranking 6th on the same standings.

South Africa, however, show a lack in all-rounder ascendency (the best in combination between batting and bowling contributions), after only having two players in all of the cricketing codes’ (Test, ODI, T20) respective ICC top 10 rankings. Those respective Protean players waving South Africa’s flag are: Vernon Philander who is ranked 5th in the top 10 ICC Test All-rounder Rankings and JP Duminy ranked 8th in the top 10 ICC T20 All-rounder Rankings.

Full Top 10 ICC Player Rankings for each code:

Test Batsmen:

1

S.P.D. Smith

AUS

906

2

J.E. Root

ENG

878

3

K.S. Williamson

NZ

876

4

H.M. Amla

SA

847

5

Younus Khan

PAK

845

6

A.C. Voges

AUS

802

6

A.B. de Villiers

SA

802

8

A.M. Rahane

IND

785

9

D.A. Warner

AUS

772

10

A.N. Cook

ENG

770

Test Bowlers:

1

D.W. Steyn

SA

878

2

J.M. Anderson

ENG

870

3

R. Ashwin

IND

859

4

S.C.J. Broad

ENG

836

5

H.M.R.K.B. Herath

SL

831

6

Yasir Shah

PAK

806

7

M.A. Starc

AUS

792

8

R.A. Jadeja

IND

773

9

N. Wagner

NZ

760

10

T.A. Boult

NZ

733

Test All-rounders:

1

R. Ashwin

IND

439

2

Shakib Al Hasan

BAN

384

3

M.M. Ali

ENG

292

4

M.A. Starc

AUS

279

5

V.D. Philander

SA

264

6

B.A. Stokes

ENG

259

7

S.C.J. Broad

ENG

253

8

R.A. Jadeja

IND

237

9

H.M.R.K.B. Herath

SL

223

10

C.R. Woakes

ENG

209

ODI Batsmen:

1

A.B. de Villiers

SA

887

2

V. Kohli

IND

813

3

H.M. Amla

SA

778

4

J.E. Root

ENG

758

5

K.S. Williamson

NZ

752

6

M.J. Guptill

NZ

751

7

R.G. Sharma

IND

750

8

S Dhawan

IND

737

9

Q. de Kock

SA

735

10

F. du Plessis

SA

716

ODI Bowlers:

1

S.P. Narine

WI

759

2

T.A. Boult

NZ

731

3

M.A. Starc

AUS

711

4

Shakib Al Hasan

BAN

699

5

Imran Tahir

SA

693

6

M.J. Henry

NZ

675

7

D.W. Steyn

SA

645

7

K. Rabada

SA

645

9

M. Morkel

SA

628

10

A.U. Rashid

ENG

609

ODI All-rounders:

1

Shakib Al Hasan

BAN

416

2

A.D. Mathews

SL

352

3

J.P. Faulkner

AUS

334

4

T.M. Dilshan

SL

303

5

Mohammad Nabi

AFG

292

6

M.R. Marsh

AUS

288

7

M.M. Ali

ENG

278

8

G.J. Maxwell

AUS

263

9

R.A. Jadeja

IND

259

10

C.J. Anderson

NZ

252

Twenty20 Batsmen:

1

V. Kohli

IND

820

2

A.J. Finch

AUS

803

3

M.J. Guptill

NZ

754

4

F. du Plessis

SA

741

5

J.E. Root

ENG

735

6

K.S. Williamson

NZ

719

7

A.D. Hales

ENG

699

8

Mohammad Shahzad

AFG

674

9

C.H. Gayle

WI

668

10

H. Masakadza

ZIM

657

Twenty20 Bowlers:

1

S. Badree

WI

743

2

Imran Tahir

SA

740

3

J.J. Bumrah

IND

735

4

R. Ashwin

IND

684

5

Shahid Afridi

PAK

674

6

K.J. Abbott

SA

671

7

S.P. Narine

WI

668

8

A.F. Milne

NZ

655

9

J.P. Faulkner

AUS

641

10

Mohammad Nabi

AFG

638

Twenty20 All-rounders:

1

Shakib Al Hasan

BAN

346

2

Shahid Afridi

PAK

332

3

G.J. Maxwell

AUS

329

4

M.N. Samuels

WI

276

5

Mohammad Nabi

AFG

274

6

D.J. Bravo

WI

267

7

A.D. Mathews

SL

262

8

J.P. Duminy

SA

246

9

P.W. Borren

NED

218

10

Samiullah Shenwari

AFG

217

Image: Dale Steyn (left) in action alongside AB de Villiers (right) for the Proteas in a ODI

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